Interview with Tim Parr, Brad Quartuccio, Tim Jackson

Tim Grahl posted a video of Tim Parr (owner of Swobo), Brad Quartuccio (Urban Velo) and Tim Jackson (Masi Bikes) in which they talk about how the bike industry is encouraging people to use bikes for transportation. Watch it here.

The Bicycle Leadership Conference started this weekend in San Diego. Trek chief John Burke will talk about increased industry involvement in advocacy in his keynote tomorrow morning.

Rich Kelly of Interbike is there, as well as somebody from SOAR Communications (which does marketing for Interbike). Tim Jackson of Masi is also there and says he’ll try to post news from the conference if he can get Wi Fi access there. He already posted his thoughts on Rob McSkimming’s talk. McSkimming is VP of Business Development for Whistler Blackthorne, and he talked about what the bike business can learn from the ski industry to improve business.

One of the things that came out at the Conference was a new Bicycle Owners Manual that meets new European standards for bike sales. The new manual focuses on actual product usage, riding and includes a lot of how-to. It also takes owners through topics such as “What happens if” and includes instruction on suspension, disc brakes, materials, torque, and maintenance.

Anything would be a big improvement over most of the owners manuals I’ve seen that come with bikes. The best I’ve seen comes from Breezer Bikes — besides going into detail on basic bike maintenance, Breezer Bikes owners’ manual covers fit, general riding tips, braking technique, flat fixing and so forth. Instead of the usual CYA lawyer speak, Breezer manuals include specific and useful information on how riders can ride safely. Most manuals, for example, caution that riding at night is dangerous and should not be done; Breezer’s manuals advise riders to use their lights and give instruction on how to adjust the lights. The manuals also give tips on wet weather riding.

Besides the general riding tips in the Breezer owners’ manual, each Breezer Bike also comes with John Allen’s Street Skills pamphlet on riding legally and safely. You can download PDFs of the owners manuals at Breezer’s resources page.